Three Ways Your Loyalty Program and Site Search Should Be Working Together

Increasingly, converting browsers into buyers depends on far more than just products. Customers are getting harder to please as they demand more personalised and efficient experiences. Therefore, retailers have to become savvier with the technologies they use. To rise above the competition, store owners need to consider how their e-commerce solutions can work together to drive conversion and repeat custom.

Site search and loyalty programs can work together to give customers a deeper level of personalisation and efficiency customers crave. Not only that, but they also facilitate a more enjoyable customer experience that will encourage your customers to return.

We take a deeper dive into the relationship between site search and customer loyalty and explore three ways to ensure that they work in perfect harmony to drive repeat purchases.

Be consistent across all touch points

Today, customer journeys are no longer linear. Instead, shoppers choose where and when to interact with your brand. To overcome this challenge, retailers need to make a conscious effort to be consistent across all the places their customers will engage.

To successfully combine your loyalty program with site search you need to track every stage of a shopper’s buying behaviour. You can then use that information to appropriately communicate with your customers across the right marketing channels. Start by analyzing your customer data to see if there’s a particular product range the customer buys from often. Then, offer bonus points or incentives for other products in that collection and notify them about available rewards in a loyalty email. Finally, once they visit your store, you can harness Klevu’s intelligent site search to select and prioritise the same products to promote in the search bar. With 25% of all site visitors clicking on a search suggestion, this feature helps you get the right eyes on your most-loved products.

The key to combining your loyalty insights, emails and site search together, is ensuring consistent messaging across all channels so that customers can connect the dots quickly and easily.

Learn from your search insights

Site search offers a deeper level of insight any store can benefit from. The queries your customers type into your search bar are a window into their behaviour and teaches you what they want and value from your store. So, make the most of this valuable data to learn more about your customers and elevate your rewards strategy.

When it comes to your loyalty program, your search insights can teach you if your approach is generous enough. Are your customers able to be incentivised, quickly enough, to claim rewards for the products they want most? Search insights can even help you expose which items you could offer as a free gift or part of a one-time promotion for your loyalty members to enjoy.

For example, Dr Axe regularly runs email promotions to members, using free products as incentives to encourage another purchase.

 

Get to know your customers

People who use site search are more likely to purchase as they’re focused on what they want, rather than relying on aimless browsing to find a product that piques their interest.

Learn what your customers really desire from what they’ve searched for and bought previously.  Then incorporate that insight into your loyalty strategy in order to offer them personalised points and incentives for similar products. This is key to encouraging them to return to your site and make another purchase promptly. Once their second purchase is in the bag, customers are 50% more likely to buy from you a third time, so finding ways to bring them back is crucial. Hook them in the right way early on using the extra data you’ve got and they’ll thank you with their loyalty.

It takes two

It’s no surprise that customers appreciate a personal touch when shopping. With an inundation of choice, they lean towards the brands and stores that take the time to understand their buying behaviours. In fact, 81% of customers want brands to understand them better.

By using your search data to learn the ins and outs of your customers’ behaviour,  it becomes easier to enhance and personalise your loyalty program – giving your shoppers a reason to shop with you over and over again.

About LoyaltyLion
LoyaltyLion is a data-driven loyalty and engagement software for fast-growth ecommerce merchants. Thousands of retailers worldwide use LoyaltyLion to add their own fully customisable loyalty programs and increase customer engagement, retention and spend.  Stores using LoyaltyLion typically generate at least $15 for every $1 they spend on the platform.

Author: Mollie Woolnough-Rai, Content Marketing Executive at LoyaltyLion